OC Register- Reports Show Best Housing Market Since 05 Boom

06 Apr OC Register- Reports Show Best Housing Market Since 05 Boom

Interesting findings from The Orange County Register came out this week about the Orange County real estate market. Jeff Collins wrote a piece about data pointing to 2012 being on pace for the best housing market since the boom of 2005. Here is the data Collins found to be the reason for the “booming market”.

1)The number of homes on the market for sale totaled 6,615 in the 30 days ending March 29th 2012. That’s the smallest housing market since July 2005. Inventory is down 38 percent from 2011. And it’s down 63 percent from the peak in September 2007, when 17,898 homes were on the market for sale in Orange County.

2)The number of pending sales – offers being accepted and going into escrow in the latest 30-day period – was 3,840, a staggering number and the second-highest number since the end of June 2005. Only April 2010’s tally of 3,979 deals reached was higher, which happened to be the last month of the first time home buyer tax credit.

3)The “market time,” or time it would take to sell all 6,615 listings at the current sales pace, fell to 52 days. That is the briefest amount of time on the market since the booming time of August 2005.

His findings are pointing to, not only a recovering market, a market that is healthy and built to last. As I pointed out in Shadow Inventory…What Is It? And in Explaining the complex world of short-sales the banks are no longer releasing foreclosed homes onto the market, and are actually trying to restructure home loans to keep people from selling their property (ie short-sale); thus, stabilizing prices. Long story short- prices are no longer dropping due to extra inventory and are actually starting to rise due to healthy and normal market conditions. People have been saving and waiting patiently for bottoming signs to buy a home over the past few years, the problem is now the bottoms in and people are all at once starting to rush to buy homes; thus, causing the issue of more demand then supply. Collins writes “ “If you’re a buyer stepping into the market, it feels just like ’04 and ’05. … It’s still a crazy market.”